OREANDA-NEWS. August 22, 2016. An environmentally friendly method of processing bauxite that turns ore waste products into usable resources could add value to the ore and reduce the mining industry’s environmental footprint, miningjournal reports.

North Queensland hosts some of the largest known, but inaccessible, bauxite deposits on earth. University of Queensland researcher Dr Hong Peng is now working with mining major Rio Tinto to find a way to unlock the mineral wealth from the ground.

According to Peng, Queensland is well-placed to benefit from technology advances.

“Now, instead of wasting the bauxite ore by-products, we can recover most of the minerals, which also reduces the environmental impact of the mining activity,” he said.

Peng said a new process could make some bauxite deposits feasible to mine where they had not been so previously.

Bauxite is made up of 30-54% alumina, typically refined from bauxite ore using the Bayer process, which separates it from the mixture of various iron oxides, titanium dioxide and the desilication product aluminosilicate.

As part of the standard Bayer process the aluminosilicate crystallises to a fine powder intermingled through the residue, making separation of the components virtually impossible as the red mud has to be chemically neutralised and maintained in long-term storage.

Peng said while this process wasted a lot of those other minerals and created bauxite residue, a new process could work to control crystallisation and yield a coarser material that could be separated and removed.

“The new method we’re developing has environmental benefits and financial benefits, as the by-products can be sold,” he said.

Boosted by an Advance Queensland Grant and the Rio Tinto partnership, Peng is confident the technology can be rolled out in 5-10 years.